Every Painting Tells a Story Don't It

...well perhaps every painting does not tell a story, but many do. I recently visited the Art Institute of Chicago. A long time ago I figured out that the best way to experience the "Toot" is to try to see a little bit during each visit. The collections are so expansive and varied that trying to take it all in at once is impossible and leads to burnout. My best experiences at the Toot have been when I have popped in for a couple of hours and have focused on no more that two or three areas. Every time I go, I discover something new or see something again with a fresh perspective.

On my most recent visit I discovered the artist Archibald Motley. He was part of the Harlem Renaissance and was known for his paintings of African American nightlife. In fact, the painting that caught my attention is titled "Nightlife". The museum caption for this painting lauds Motley's use of color and artificial light. The caption compares Motley's use of light in Nightlife to another painting located in the next room, Edward Hopper's iconic "Nighthawks". What drew me into both of these paintings were the scenes themselves. Both of these paintings are inhabited with strong characters and suggested stories. Look at the scene at the bar in Nightlife. There are two women sitting at the bar dressed to kill and having a smoke. One of the women is looking intenesly at a man standing a few feet away, who, in turn, is looking away from the woman and has his arm outstretched towards another woman who is dancing with another man. The woman at the bar is looking at the man with what may be described as exacerbation or intense annoyance. Maybe he is her man who is trying to make time with another woman. Maybe she is obsessed with the man who doesn't even know how she feels. Towards the middle of the painting there is another man sitting alone at a table, smoking and having a drink with his eyes closed. He is surrounded by people dancing and in happy revelry. He looks like the saddest and loneliest person in the word. He may have lost someone close and dear to him through some foolish action of his.

Nighthawks presents 4 people at a diner late at night. A man and a woman sit together; another man sits away from them with his back to the viewer; the diner employee looks like he is preparing something or putting something away. It is unclear if the characters are acquainted with each other, but there is definitely a tension in the scene. The couple may be on the verge of a split or maybe they are just bored with each other. Does the mysterious third diner patron bear them any ill will? Is the employee part of their lives in some way?

Unlike reading a text narrative, these type of paintings allow the viewer to construct his own story within the context of the scene presented by the artist.

Magazines and Wilson

Amy and I receive a slew of magazines. Some are weekly, biweekly, monthly and quarterly. This is in addition to a daily newspaper. Aside from contributing to global deforestation (I still like the physical copy versus the on-line versions), the magazines present a lot of text for me to read in addition to the books that I read. I enjoy reading magazines (mostly of the non-fiction variety) in a different way that I enjoy reading books. Magazines, with their glossy photos and snappy text layouts, are often inviting to read, but do not compel me to keep around for any long period of time. In fact, my rule of thumb is that I only keep a particular magazine around until the next issue arrives. I them pass it along to a friend or recycle. If I didn't get around to reading the magazine, too bad. I get rid of it and move on to the next issue. This helps me manage the pile-up of unread material. There are enough books that I want to get to before I turn to dust. The last thing I need is having to make time to read the Time Magazine cover story about Afghanistan from March that I never got to. If I really want to read it, I have a whole week to find the time.

A friend of mine takes a different approach. She keeps the zines around so that she has more choices when she has the time to read. I guess I am hard-wired differently. I can be a lazy reader. If I did not impose the deadlines on myself, the zines would pile up. What my friend views as having more choices by keeping old zines around, I would view with a creeping anxiety as the piles of unread material gets larger.

On a different note, I just read Daniel Clowes latest graphic novel, Wilson. My friend Jimmy loaned it to me. This is the first book that Clowes has written which did not originally appear in one of his comic books. In other words, the material was first published graphic book format. Clowes is at the top of his game. He has really matured from his early punkier days. Wilson is a middle aged man living in Oakland who has no real connections with other human beings. He tries very hard to force square pegs into round holes and the results are hilarious and depressing. Kudos to Clowes for hitting one out of the ballpark. My only regret is that I read the whole thing in about an hour. Thanks Jimmy!

War Without End

Sorry for the hiatus. I just finished a book entitled The Body and The Blood. It is a great book with a terrible title. It is a non-fiction book written by Charles Sennott, a Boston Globe reporter who lived in Jesusalem for 4 years during the late 1990s/early 2000s. In his book, he documents the fragile state of the Arab Christian communities in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt at the turn of the third millennium. He uses the conceit of travelling to the places where Jesus was said to have lived or visited during his life (and resurrection). This book was given to me by a friend at my church and I highly recommend it to anyone that would like to get a sense of how the three Abrahamic religions coexist in this fractious region. I was totally riveted reading the stories of Palestinian life under occupation and the tensions between the Arabs of Christian and Islamic faiths.

The Arab/Israel conflict is not what I would call light reading. There is probably a library full of books on the history and politics of the region. Much of it is written from the Israeli perspective. Even the works that are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause are often written by Israelis or by Americans. Very few mainstream books available in the west are written by Arabs, but there are some. In order to get a deep and nuanced understanding of the conflict one must read multiple books with different perspectives. Here are some of the better books that I have read:

Out of Place by Edward Said - This is a memoir of growing up in the Middle East by the now deceased Columbia University professor. Said is the most eloquent of Arab writers.

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman - This is probably the best overall book I have read regarding the region. Friedman was the New York Times correspondent in Lebanon in the early 1980s during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He then became the Jerusalem correspondent just in time for the Intafada in the late 1980s.

Jerusalem in the 20th Century by Martin Gilbert - This is a decidedly pro-Israel book. Gilbert's account of the civil strife in Jerusalem leading up to the 1948 is gripping.

Six Days of War by Michael Oren - This book provides great detail regarding the 1967 war where Israel routed three large Arab armies. Israeli and Western writers have never been able to access the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian archives to present their side of the political and military story in any real depth. Until then, we can only wonder.

Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter - President Carter was unfairly labeled an anti-Semite for writing this book. He is extremely critical of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians. This book also contains his recollections of the Camp David meetings when he helped negotiate the peace between Egypt and Israel.

What Went Wrong by Bernard Lewis - This short book discusses why the Islamic world, once a beacon of progress, was eclipsed by the West in the last three centuries.

There are so many more books. I hope you all read one of these selections. We can then meet at a local hookah bar and discuss.